Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:56 pm

Okay Rudi, you caught my attention. I have never heard of a milking machine attached to the cub. I can see how vacuum would be useful for something like that. Could you elaborate please. Have you actually seen a milking machine set up this way?

glenn

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:07 pm

A lot of milking was done, during power outages, using engine vacuum. That may be the reason for the pipe plug, on the cub manifold. Farms tend to be on the "end of the wires", last to get power back, in a storm. Ed

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:46 pm

The plug is replaced by a common valve just like the one on the supply lines in the barn. A rubber hose connect the tractor to one of the supply line valves and you are set to go. Used it once or twice myself.

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 3:52 pm

Seen milking machines powered by tractor vacuum a couple of times. Always during electric power outages. This was years ago and at that time most farmers did not have auxiliary power sources, generator sets.

Much slower in operation than electric powered milkers. Arrived at 10 AM for an appointment with farmer. Farmer was still powering his milking machine with his tractor vacuum. Normally he would have finished milking around 7 AM.

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:27 pm

Our M had a valve on the intake for that purpose. A dairy farming neighbor used to borrow it for milking when the power was out. Must have been either something they did away with in later years or unique to IH, because he had an MM and 4020s, but he borrowed our M when the power went out.

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:06 pm

Glenn:

glad it tickled your fancy .... I didn't understand the reason behind the plug on the manifold until a couple of the older hands here set me straight on it. Made a lot of sense. As Ed said, a lot of farms were at the end of the wires and tended to be last to get the shore power back after a storm. Cows still needed to be milked so made sense that the tractor could be hooked up to provide the vacuum.

I love this place. I learn stuff every day

Re: Milking Machine?

Wed Mar 27, 2013 9:21 pm

I thought that about any gas engine bigger than a lawn mower had a vacuum tap. A lot of accessories ran off vacuum.

Re: Milking Machine?

Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:23 am

Jim Becker wrote:I thought that about any gas engine bigger than a lawn mower had a vacuum tap. A lot of accessories ran off vacuum.

Ah yes, How many remember the joy of vacuum wipers?

Re: Milking Machine?

Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:27 am

I loved mine, they worked very well, would even push snow at idle ,and no over speed on deceleration .

Re: What's this?Eugene, did his '53 Chevy truck have electric wipers? Mine had a vacuum motor. I put on a dual action fuel pump which regulated the vacuum. They worked as good as electrics as long as the motor was running. No more too slow ... or too fast.by danovercashTue Mar 26, 2013 8:39 pm

Re: Milking Machine?

Thu Mar 28, 2013 8:25 am

I grew up in the 50s on a dairy farm. We milked 100 cows and had six surge milkers. My job was to empty the milkers and move the belt from one cow to the next. We used milk cans and at 10 years old. It was everything I could do. To get those full cans over the edge of the cooler into the cold water. I can't remember what we did if the Elect. went off.

Re: Milking Machine?

Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:17 am

Oh heck my Dad was using a setup like that from time to time right up until he sold the cows a few years ago.

We had an old Surge bucket milker left over from before the pipeline, and he'd hook it to the manifold on a gas tractor to milk down cows out in the barnyard. For a while the loader tractor was basically a self-contained milking parlor. Hip slings to get the cow on her feet, and a vacuum spigot to run the milking machine.

I guess when we had just moved to the farm back in 1975, he milked cows one night during a power outage with the M hooked to one vacuum line and the 1969 Chevy hooked to the other vacuum line. The next morning he went over and bought a PTO generator.

Re: Milking Machine?

Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:43 pm

A lot of old Model T Fords have their maniforlds drilled and tapped. One of mine had a petcock screwed into it. My grandfather told me to open er up -- you'll really fly when she's running lean, but i liked my valves to much to try it. Besides on a T the carb needle can be adjusted from the driver's seat while going down the road. Next time someone drives a Cub a 100 miles cross country, it could save some time and fuel.Actually most of the vacume on T's was used for wolf whistles. Try Lang's Old Car Parts if you want to add some "bling" to the Cub. Kind of makes me wonder if some of those manifold taps on T's were for milking?